Manhattanville Player Drawing Protests

Akron Beacon Journal ^ | 22 February 2003 | Associated Press

[Deadeye Division]

Manhattanville Player Drawing Protests
Associated Press

NEWBURGH, N.Y. - A college basketball player who turns away from the U.S. flag during the national anthem was jeered by flag-waving students at a road game, even while she was on the bench.

Toni Smith, a senior at Manhattanville College, was booed at Mount St. Mary at a game Thursday night.

Smith is protesting "that the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power." She has turned away from the flag all season.

Before Thursday's game, the Mount St. Mary student government handed out small flags before the game. More than 500 people filled the small gym, and jeered Smith at every opportunity.

At the end of the game Thursday night's game between Manhattanville and Mount St. Mary's, the crowd sang "God Bless America."

When Manhattanville played at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy on Feb. 11, more than 300 flag-waving midshipmen greeted Smith with chants of "USA" and "Leave our country."

When Smith picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and was benched, the crowd chanted, "We want Toni," according to The Journal News.

"For some time now, the inequalities that are embedded into the American system have bothered me. As they are becoming progressively worse and it is clear that the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power, I cannot, in good conscience, salute the flag," Smith said in a statement released Thursday.

Manhattanville President Richard Berman said he told Smith "what she's doing is courageous and difficult."

[PeterPrinciple]

Smith is protesting "that the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power." She has turned away from the flag all season.

........can't argue with the point that govt is most concerned with expanding it's own power but the purpose of government is not to better our quality of life....thats our job.

She is not smart enough to know that the flag represents us, not the government..............or am I wrong.

[mountaineer]

You're correct, the flag does not represent the bloated bureaucracy that is the U.S. government. It stands for its people and their history - US. This girl needs to grow up and take a remedial civics class.

[KAUAIBOUND]

This bimbo should move to France, where her desires would be met ..... by an intrusive, powerful government more concerned with cradle-to-grave entitlements than protecting its citizens against radical Islam.

[NativeNewYorker]

#24 Toni Smith

  Class:  Senior

  Major: Sociology

  Position: Guard/Forward Ht.: 5-10 

  High School: Beacon

  Hometown: New York, NY

Nickname: Lady T or T

Hobbies: Studio art, hitting a speed bag

Favorite Movie: Days of Thunder

Favorite Artist: Lauren Hill

Person I Most Admire: My mother

Favorite Food: Lobster

Favorite Quotes: "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for

anything."  "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they

need and the military has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

http://www.mville.edu/athletics/sports/wbask/02-03_season/02-03_roster/Toni_Smith.htm

[dfwgator]

No doubt she'll soon be offering herself as a human shield in Iraq.

[Tamzee]

Don't they remember what this country felt like a year ago? We had suffered the most devastating attack in our history, yet our citizens were united in our passionate loyalty to America and our international position strong with almost the entire world supporting us. And then the Democrats became worried about Bush's huge approval rating... look what they've done deliberately to our country in their efforts to weaken Bush's popularity. Their ripping our country to shreds just so they can strengthen their own political careers.

It's revolting.

[mountaineer]

Her favorite quotes say it all. The second proves the first.

[aculeus]

Manhattanville President Richard Berman said he told Smith "what she's doing is courageous and difficult."

What Berman is doing is predictable and cowardly.

[Tacis]

When I was her age, I felt the same way because the government did not endorse free love and nickel beer. This honey is flat out a stupid, attention getting bimbo. She is mouthing the leftist platitudes that some one else has forced upon her. She doesn't know what she is saying and doesn't know what she wants. My bet is that some one has convinced her to be anti-Bush and that a dem, no matter what he did, would be OK.

[ladyjane]

Didn't Manhattanville used to be a Roman Catholic convent school? I think they sold themselves to some secular group a few years ago.

[judgeandjury]

Nickname: Lady T or T

New nickname: Traitor

[Conservative til I die]

Don't they remember what this country felt like a year ago?

Of course not, Liberals hate America.

[general_re]

"For some time now, the inequalities that are embedded into the American system have bothered me. As they are becoming progressively worse and it is clear that the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power, I cannot, in good conscience, salute the flag," Smith said in a statement released Thursday.

Yeah, that affirmative-action thing really bugs me too.

Of course, that's the sort of state-sponsored "inequality" that Smith is probably just fine with, Title IX baby that she is...

[aculeus]

Manhattanville's History[ from their site]

In 1841 in a three-story house on Houston Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic boarding school for girls, was founded. The Academy relocated in 1847 to an area just north of New York City on a hill overlooking the village of Manhattanville. Destroyed by a fire in 1888, the Academy was rebuilt on the same foundation and continued to grow, both in curriculum and physical environment.

In March of 1917, 76 years after its founding as an academy, Manhattanville was chartered as a college by the New York State Board of Regents, empowering it to grant both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 1952, the college moved to Purchase to the former estate of Whitelaw Reid, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune and Ambassador to England. Today, Manhattanville's "Castle" looks out over the green of the quadrangle to the renovated residence halls, academic buildings and the housing complex for faculty and staff.

Fully co-educational since 1969 and non-denominational in its governance since 1971, Manhattanville's original vision lives on in the tradition of service begun by the Society of the Sacred Heart, extending from the students to the global community. During the depression and World War II, President Grace Cowardin Dammann, RSCJ, instilled in Manhattanville's students a keen awareness of social problems by encouraging them to spend one day a week working with children at the Barat Settlement in the Bowery and at Casita Maria in East Harlem. Mother Dammann's widely published speech, "Principles vs. Prejudice," inspired other colleges to break down racial barriers. The long tradition of the school, which preceded the college charter, determined the character Manhattanville would have: a firm belief in the liberalizing effect of the liberal arts, a lively sense of tradition, a wide-ranging interest in the most humane manifestations of the human spirit, and a continuing effort to enhance the local community and to accept responsibility for this segment of human history.

[ladyjane]

Interesting history. I remember a couple of Manhattanville alumnae who were quite unhappy with the changes. Perhaps they would have preferred bankruptcy.

[fnord]

... head-shaking bump

Don't worry little princess, the great men and women of our armed forces will protect your 'skull full of mush' and secure you the freedom to be an idiot. But you are not fit to hold the sneakers of any serviceman.

[vollmond]

You beat me to it. I was about to mention that Title IX doesn't exist anywhere but here. I'd like to see her get get a free education in Iraq based on her bench-warming basketball "skills".

[PeterPrinciple]

The more I thought about this, it was liberal logic.........I don't want the govt to have to much power but I want the govt to take care of all my needs


"A government big enough to give you any thing you want is a government big enough to take everything you have" Gerald Ford